response to CSU
Posted on 10/22/2003 4:49:00 AM PDT by Mark Felton
The most dangerous force our country faces right now doesn't come from the threat of international terrorism. It comes from evangelical Christian fanatics connected to the White House, like Army Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin.
Last week, NBC ran a story showing Boykin in front of audiences at several evangelical churches across the country. Projected behind him was President George W. Bush. "Why is this man in the White House?" Boykin asked his audiences. "I tell you this morning, he's in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this."
This was after the recently appointed deputy undersecretary for intelligence also told the audiences the United States has been battling Satan during our war with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. He also said the reason terrorists have been attacking us is "because we're a Christian nation."
The three-star general in full dress uniform told the cheering crowds that when he was fighting against a Muslim militia leader in Somalia in 1993, he knew the Christian god was on his side. He had nothing to fear from Muslims because their god was an idol.
If images of radical hell-fire-and-brimstone religious fanatics who scream at us in the Free-Speech Area come to mind, you're not far off. The worst part is that this man isn't a sandwich-board-toting crazy. He has actual power, and he is a leading military figure in our ongoing wars against Muslim countries. He's not alone. Bush and his staff of evangelical Christians are slowly forcing their views on the rest of America and the world. America is shifting from democracy to theocracy.
Almost immediately after Sept. 11, President Bush said we were now in a "crusade." Even though he later retracted this remark and has waged a public relations campaign saying he respects Islam, you can't help but feel that Bush thinks he's on a mission from God.
According to Newsweek, prior to deploying troops to Iraq, Bush, the self-proclaimed "Born Again" evangelical Christian, told religious broadcasters "terrorists hate the fact that ... we can worship Almighty God the way we see fit," and that the United States needs to bring God's gift of liberty to "every human being in the world." Sounds like he forgot to say "whether they want it or not."
Bush's use of religion as a justification of policy isn't limited to war. Last week he declared Marriage Protection Week. This anti-homosexual statement coincides with the anniversary of the death of 21-year-old Matthew Shepard's death. You may remember him. He was the student from Laramie, Wyo. who was beaten to death for being gay (See Hallie Gorman's column "Protection hurts gays" in last week's Orion for more information).
This tasteless statement is just one more way Bush places his religious views on others, and it comes only months after a summer of Bush using biblical references to promote heterosexual marriage over homosexuals. Bush isn't just making statements - he also plans on using our tax dollars to fund his religious views.
According to Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Bush administration plans on creating a "faith based" initiative that could funnel large sums of public funds to religious social services. Under the initiative, $30.5 million will go to grants given to social and religious groups. And it will give close to $20 billion to religious groups that claim to operate substance and mental health service programs. Religious groups could also compete for $8 billion in housing grants. If this initiative makes it through the legislature, it will be a direct slap in the face of the First Amendment, which says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."
Since Sept. 11, Bush has been sounding more like a preacher giving a sermon than a president. The reverend C. Welton Gaddy, a Louisiana pastor and executive director of the Interfaith Alliance Foundation, told CNN that "This president is using general references ... and vocabulary that come straight out of a very particular religious tradition, which is evangelical Christianity." He went on to say that this doesn't reflect the broad range of religious views this country has.
Gaddy's right. When one religion is forced above others, it turns us away from being a free country. When guys like Bush, Boykin and Attorney General John Ashcroft use religion to determine policy decisions, the constitutional-based wall that has separated church and state since this country's inception starts to crumble. When the dust from that wall clears, we'll no longer be free.
Ryan Sabalow can be reached at opinioneditor@orion-online.net
File a complaint of religious bigotry!
I don't believe this is quite accurate. Didn't Shepard try to hit on a couple of yahoos, who took offense? In other words, he was beaten for what he did, not what he was. Not that his killers have an excuse, of course, but Bush's endorsement of marriage between a man and a woman has nothing to do with this incident.
response to CSU
[Snicker} This young man doesn't have a clue.
hawk
Maybe the kid should actually read the Constitution sometime before graduation. Might also want to bone up on early American history (try primary sources, rather than some textbook written by a Liberal academic).
| Sorted by relevance Sort by date |
Crusader rhetoric disastrous for diplomacy side of war against ...
Salt Lake Tribune, UT - 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON -- Osama bin Laden has said he is engaged in a holy war
with the United States. For the general who is now charged with ...
Silencing Boykin shows that the wrong dog is being muzzled
Salt Lake Tribune, UT - 1 hour ago
Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, a much decorated soldier, was wounded
by the political correctness movement last week over comments ...
Playing into the radicals' hands
Seattle Post Intelligencer, WA - 9 hours ago
By BONNIE ERBE. A two-year crusade of sorts by the Bush administration
to mollify moderate Muslims and to try to defuse irrational ...
'Islamaphobic' general to be investigated
Al-Jazeera, Qatar - 13 hours ago
The US Defence Secretary has agreed to a top general's request for an official
review of his remarks casting the war on terrorism as a religious struggle. ...
What did Mahathir really mean to say? (II)
Straits Times, Singapore - 13 hours ago
WHAT is it about the increasingly tense world situation that makes me hope someone
like Ms Shirin Ebadi comes to grace the cover of Time magazine as Person Of ...
Misguided voices
San Diego Union Tribune, CA - 22 hours ago
In these days when claims of divinely inspired warfare are disturbingly
common, muddled and bigoted public comments are hardly surprising. ...
Warring with God
Boston Globe, MA - Oct 21, 2003
By James Carroll, 10/21/2003. I KNEW that my God was bigger than his,"
Lieutenant General William G. Boykin said of his Muslim opponent. ...
The Pentagon unleashes a holy warrior
Atlanta Journal Constitution, GA - Oct 20, 2003
"Appointing Jerry Boykin, with his visions of holy war in the Islamic world, to a
top position in the United States military is no way to marginalize extremism ...
EDITORIAL: Boykin Vs Bin Ladin
Daily Times, Pakistan - Oct 20, 2003
When President George Bush embarked on his ‘war on terrorism’, he employed
the same binary logic as Osama bin Laden: those not with Mr Bush were ...
Pentagon deleted part of official's apology
CNN - Oct 20, 2003
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An apology from Lt. Gen. William Boykin for casting
the war on terrorism in terms that offended some Muslims ...
Whose god is 'real' and 'bigger'?
Asia Times Online, Hong Kong - Oct 20, 2003
By Ehsan Ahrari. The man in charge of hunting down Osama bin Laden
has bin Laden's exact frame of reference regarding the "enemies ...
Keep God out of White House
The Orion - 5 hours ago
The most dangerous force our country faces right now doesn't come from
the threat of international terrorism. It comes from evangelical ...
Rumsfeld backs inside probe of general's speech
Washington Times, DC - 7 hours ago
By Bill Gertz. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday that
he welcomes an internal investigation of a three-star general ...
Of Christian extremists and US Sheriffs - By Shireen M Mazari .
Hi Pakistan, Pakistan - 7 hours ago
Over the last week, there have been a number of interesting developments, seemingly
unconnected but in fact having an underlying linkage for the Muslim world ...
Both in US and Muslim world, we must control those who cultivate ...
Asheville Citizen Times, NC - 7 hours ago
Two years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States,
relations between the US and the Muslim world have deteriorated ...
With God on our side
Willimantic Chronicle, CT - 7 hours ago
Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin is a highly decorated covert military
operations veteran and Army officer. Today he serves as deputy ...
High-placed general's comments renew controversy over Islam
Associated Baptist Press, FL - 14 hours ago
By Robert Marus. WASHINGTON (ABP) -- Comments by a high-ranking Pentagon
official casting America's struggle against terrorism as ...
The Fundamentalist General
CounterPunch, CA - 19 hours ago
By ROBERT JENSEN. "I am not anti-Islam or any other religion." "I
support the free exercise of all religions." "For those who have ...
THE GENERAL IN HIS PULPIT
New York Post, NY - Oct 21, 2003
October 21, 2003 -- THE war over religion is heating up. The Supreme
Court is taking up the question of whether the words "under ...
Bare Boykin and Bush's Divine Place
Progressive.org - Oct 20, 2003
Last week, a senior Pentagon general got in hot water for injecting
his religious beliefs into the public discussion. Lt. General ...
Gen. Boykin's crusade against Islam
Modesto Bee, CA - Oct 20, 2003
In June 2002, Jerry Boykin stepped to the pulpit at the First Baptist Church
of Broken Arrow, Okla., and described photographs he had taken of Mogadishu ...
“ I Apologize for Telling the Truth ”
Washington Dispatch - Oct 20, 2003
Army Lt. General William G. Boykin, the new US deputy secretary for
intelligence, apologized to his critics Friday for offending ...
'General! Shut your mouth ... Sir!'
WorldNetDaily - Oct 19, 2003
It's quite amazing, isn't it, this "freedom of speech" that we have.
It's guaranteed in the Constitution. You can say anything you ...
It's a religious war
The North Carolina State Technician, NC - Oct 19, 2003
The war on terrorism has pitted Christian values with fundamentalist Islam.
Ben Kraudel cuts through the lies and declares the war a crusade. ...
US Gen. Boykin Apologizes for Comments on Islam
Aljazeerah.info - Oct 19, 2003
WASHINGTON, 19 October 2003 — A senior Pentagon official under fire for his comments
about Islam said Friday that he never intended to denigrate the Muslim ...
FREEDOM OF SPEECH FOR ARMY LT GEN BOYKIN, PLEASE
Michnews.com - Oct 19, 2003
By J. Grant Swank, Jr. Let's let freedom ring, and that includes a man
in uniform speaking from a pulpit in a church. Why not? Army Lt.Gen. ...
Putting a muzzle on the wrong dog
Baltimore Sun, MD - 4 hours ago
By Cal Thomas. ARLINGTON, Va. - Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, a much decorated
soldier, was wounded by the political correctness movement ...
Why does mainstream Islam tolerate extremist views?
The Tallahassee Democrat - 5 hours ago
By Cal Thomas. Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, a much decorated soldier,
was wounded by the political correctness movement last week ...
FIRST-PERSON: Muzzling the wrong dog
BP News, TN - 13 hours ago
By Cal Thomas. WASHINGTON (BP)--Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, a much-decorated
soldier, was wounded by the political correctness movement ...
Muzzling the wrong dog
Jewish World Review - Oct 21, 2003
By Cal Thomas. The notion that religion is not at the heart of the hatred
directed at America from outside and now inside the country ...
Wrong and Divisive
Washington Post - Oct 20, 2003
Would that Mr. Bush's sense of outrage at religiously inflammatory remarks
was so finely tuned when it comes to members of his own administration. ...
Pentagon Edited General's Apology
NewsMax.com - Oct 20, 2003
An apology from Lt. Gen. William Boykin for speechmaking on the war
on terrorism in terms that offended some Muslims was heavily ...
BONNIE ERBE: Intelligence failure
Modesto Bee, CA - Oct 20, 2003
(SH) - A two-year crusade of sorts by the Bush administration to mollify moderate
Muslims and to try to defuse irrational hate of the West took a sudden and ...
CAL THOMAS: Muzzling the wrong dog
Modesto Bee, CA - Oct 20, 2003
(TMS) - Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, a much decorated soldier, was wounded
by the political correctness movement last week over comments ...
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